An ancient town on the southern Somali
coast. Oral tradition relates that Aw Ali from the interior settled in
a forest between arra guduud “the red dunes” and deeho “the white sands.”
Aw Ali liked the freshness of the ocean air and called for help from his
people in the interior to clear the forest and build several houses for
him and his family. Eventually, the settlement, much of which is now under
water, grew into a town named Barawa Ban Aw Ali, “Barawa, the open space
of Aw Ali.” The people of Baraawe speak a language of their own known as
Chimbalazi, which though it includes some Tunni, Af-Maay and Af-Mahaa vocabulary,
is related, more to the northern dialect of Swahili. Local historians relate
the origin of Barawaanis to Egyptians, Persians, Arabs, Indians, and even
the Javanese. However, historically, Barawaanis are Wardaay (Bantu), Tunni,
Wajiddu (Jiddu), Ajuraan, and Wambalazi (Galla), that is, all the various
ethnicities who fought each other through the centuries. The Tunni, composed
of five subclans (Da’farad, Dakhtira, Goygali, Hajuwa and Waridi), were
the latest to drive the Jiddo into the interior where they established
their own sultanate in Qoryooley.

The Tunni made a treaty with the Jiddu,
so that they settled on the west bank of the Shabelle, and the Jiddo on
the east bank. Both also agreed to resist foreign penetration, with the
exception of seddah saamood “the three footprints” which are the Tunni,
Jiddo and the wild beasts. However, they did accept the first Muslim migrants,
the Hatimi from Yemen and the Amawi from Sham (Syria), around the 10th
century, for both religious and commercial reasons. The town prospered
and became one of the major Islamic centers in the Horn, the Barawani Ulama,
attracting students from all over the region. Muslim scholars of
the time, such as al-Idrisi, wrote about Barawa as “an Arabic ‘Islamic’
island on the Somali coast.” Al-Idrisi also described the construction
of the coral houses, probably following Arab and Persian designs, and noted
that Barawa market was full of both domestic and foreign commodities.

Barawa was famous for traditional crafts,
such as the weaving of the Aliindi or Kikoy cloth, and hats, Kofiya Barawi,
worn by dignitaries even today, traditional sandals, shields and belts,
furniture, and several types of cooking pots, still locally made including
the clay horned stoves seen in the heyban pottery. Barawa had a distinctive
style of woodcarving and furniture making, such as the ‘Atiir “wedding
bed,” the wambar (“wooden leather covered stools”) and the mihmil “Qur’an
holder.” Gold and silver necklaces, bracelets and jewelry containers
were produced, as were metal trunks, tea/coffee pots, iron beds, spears
and arrows. Barawa is also known for its own architectural style. Wider
streets and larger windows are common. Barawa, has many two story houses
with bridges constructed over the streets so that women or the elderly
could visit other houses without down into the street. The town was divided
into major quarters each with a main Masjid. Coral was transported by camel
carts and burned to make lime for buildings, a wise use of traditional
skills that was more economical than using imported cement.

In 1506, Barawa was reduced to ashes by
the Portuguese fleet and became a major Portuguese port, but in league
with other coastal towns, it liberated itself from Portuguese rule in 1758
when it became part of the coastal alliances led by the Zanzibar Sultanate.
In 1840, when the Bardheere Jama’a looking for an outlet to the sea attacked
Barawa, the town was burned and the people appealed to the sultan of Zanzibar
for protection. However, in 1889, Barawa fell into the hands of the Italians
when the Sultan of Zanzibar was forced to agree to the annexation of the
Banadir ports to the Italian colonial administration of the Horn.
Barawa resisted the Italians. Sheikh Uways al-Baraawi organized his Ikhwaan
and instigated the Banadir revolt, which was defeated in 1908. Sheikh Uways
migrated to Biyoley to reorganize his Ikhwan but was killed in 1909. His
successor Khalif Sheikh Faraj was also killed in 1925. However, the Uwaysiyya
order, named after the martyr Sheikh Uways, emerged throughout southern
Somalia and East Africa, establishing jama’as in the riverine region, which
became strongholds of the educated elite and refuge for the disadvantaged.
From these Jama'as, many influential political leaders emerged to form
modern Somali political parties. Abdulkadir Sakhawuddin, the founder of
the Somali Youth Club (SYC), in 1943, was not only an Uwaysi leader but
also the grandson of Sheikh Uways. Barawa was the stronghold of Hizbiya
Digil-Mirifle (HDM) founded in 1947. In addition to Sheikh Uways, Baraawe
could boast of notable Ulama in the fields of Islamic jurisprudence, Hadith,
Tafsir and Sufi literature, among them Sheikh Nureini Sabiri, Sheikh Qassim
al-Baraawi, Sheikh Ma'llim Nuri and a female poet-saint, Dada Masiti.

Barawa began to decline in colonial times
when advanced port facilities were established in Marka and Mogadishu.
Post-independence governments also neglected the town. From 1974 Barawa
suffered from the refugee settlement programs of Sablaale: over 5,000 of
the 30,000 drought-stricken nomads were resettled and taught unsuccessfully
agriculture and fishery as a new way of the life. The newcomers turned
the urban life of Barawa to a nomadic one, and many Barawanese left town,
so that it no longer had its traditional character and prosperity. During
the civil war, Barawa suffered greatly from the retreating forces of Siad
Barre in the early months of 1991, but the town indeed was looted and actually
destroyed mostly by the marauding militia loyal to Mohamed Farah Aideed.
By 1992, Barawa was a ghost town. The surviving Barawanese people ran away
to settle in refugee camps, in the neighboring countries.

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